For those of us who reside in south London, visiting areas north of the river, can seem like travelling abroad. So it was with me.
My younger brother who had organised the walk, suggested that we met outside the Angel Islington tube station at c. 11am. Having taken the Victoria underground Line, I duly arrived at Highbury and Islington Station. Only after I had exited the Tube there did it become apparent that that was not our meeting point at all. The TfL map showed that The Angel station apparently named after a local pub, was the correct venue. Travelling from one tube station to another was straight forward enough, though required another fairly lengthy Tube journey; there was still time for a coffee and croissant at The Angel, whilst awaiting younger brother's arrival.
After coffee, our walk in glorious sunshine commenced and proved excellent. I had not appreciated that Islington is such a wealthy area, not least because my recollection is that Jeremy Corbyn the left wing MP, is member of parliament for the area. Presumably, the walk through excellent parks and beautiful Georgian terraces, avoided the poorer areas of the borough.
Essentially, the route took us firstly to Duncan Terrace Gardens, thence Camden Passage antiques market and a number of interesting paths on to St Mary's Church and garden. We then passed by the Little Angel Theatre which I vaguely recalled from attending there years ago. Thence onto Cross Street where again there were some beautiful house fronts.
Canonbury Road followed as did a small 'river' path though in practice the river was hardly a stream being rather smaller than say our local South London Beverley Brook, despite that we then arrived at quiet path on the 'river' bank.
The square and garden were again attractive for our walk. Almost amusingly we then arrived outside Highbury and Islington Tube station which I had accidentally attended a couple of hours previously.
Highbury fields followed which is an attractive and very large open space. Londoners perhaps take too much for granted that everywhere we have fields, parks and commons to enjoy despite the pressures of offices and housing.
The walk continued through to Shoreditch and was an excellent 5 mile stroll in the sunshine.
Surprisingly I enjoyed lunch at the The Good Egg restaurant in Stoke Newington. It turned out to be an Israeli Café with and excellent selection of lunchtime food and drink which we both enjoyed.
After lunch we caught a passing bus to Kings Cross, thence by Victoria Line to Vauxhall and back to Wimbledon on train, conveniently waiting at Vauxhall station.
Some pictures:
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